American is expanding its coach food for sale offerings, which is long overdue. I wrote back in early March that a revamp of their buy on board program was coming.
The airline announced today the addition to Socorro Tequila onboard starting June 1, and new snack baskets starting June 11 (in addition to a separate midday basket in addition to the morning and afternoon baskets).
But what I’m most interested in is the June 1 expansion of buy on board items.
- Food for sale will be available on flights over 1,100 miles – rather than the current 1,300 miles.
- New items on offer will be steak and pimento cheese sandwich, tray table tapas (olives, dried apricots, beef jerky, pistachio, white cheddar dip, pita chips and brownie brittle) and beef jerky.
- These do not replace existing offers. They are additions to the fruit and cheese tray, Tostitos Snack Box and Doritos Cool Ranch Minis.
Though discussions around premium usually center on premium cabins, most passengers fly coach. There isn’t as much margin to play with in economy, but attention to detail and thoughtful investment goes a long way towards making the experience feel more personal and human.
Decent buy on board options could make American’s coach product much more attractive. You don’t always have time to stop in the terminal for food when running between flights. Having food on offer helps make you feel taken care of. The flight no longer has the sense of a post-apocalyptic society where shortages prevail, turning it into one where there’s abundance – even if you don’t buy, you don’t have to worry about getting hungry and having nowhere to turn.
It remains to be seen how these items taste and what quantity actually gets boarded. And it’s still not competitive with what other airlines offer:
- United offers food for sale on 500 mile flights as well as hot and cold meals on flights over 1,190 miles (e.g. bagel breakfast melt; breakfastacos; burger; chicken parm sandwich).
- Delta offers food for sale on 900 mile flights.
- Meanwhile Alaska has food for sale on 775 mile flights, more robust offerings on 1,100 mile flights, and allows passengers to pre-reserve their items for purchase. American, too, had pre-order meals in coach in 2018 and 2019.
However it’s a real step in the right direction. And also a boon for Executive Platinum and ConciergeKey members flying in economy. Their benefit of a free snack item from the buy onboard menu hasn’t meant much when there hasn’t been anything on the menu. Changing that will improve the experience for the airline’s most frequent customers.
Ultimately, if this is all they do with buy on board, it’ll be a huge disappointment. But if this is the first step towards a more robust offering on more flights, that’ll go a long way towards improving the travel experience.
The airline seems to be ticking through some quick wins, addressing low hanging fruit items – from not demanding collection of business class headphones an hour prior to landing, to free wifi coming soon. But most things have been in the pipeline for awhile, not least of which are the new Philadelphia Flagship lounge and new business class suites.
There’s a lot of work to be done – like reversing the gutting of same day flight changes (which haven’t been as flexible as United or Delta’s policies since US Airways management took over). I’d love few things more than to see American make it happen.
The tray table in Economy is too small for good food and drink
Food and drink generates more waste for AA crew to collect which they are obviously loathe to
Steak and cheese is a sh*t ton of saturated fat which is terrible for you
Beef jerky is ultraprocessed meat which recent literature shows is the worst possible kind of ultraprocessed food
AA is finally very slowly (and reluctantly, it seems) undoing 13 years of America West mismanagement. They need to do more but this is a step in the right direction. Worth pointing out that AS has an amazing BoB program, and the chicken salad on croissant available for purchase on delta is something I’d gladly pay for on the ground.
@brandote – that is a sh*t ton of saturated fat as well. Sat fat increases cholesterol and risk for all kinds of poor health outcomes especially cardiac. Not to mention meat consumption is unethical and bad for the environment- please consider doing yourself and your planet a solid by consuming mostly plant based foods cooked in extra virgin olive oil.
Wake me up when Delta and American offer hot buy on board like UNITED.
United really stepped it up with the simple rollout of Illy cold brew cans. Everyone hates brewed-on-board coffee. AA should follow suit — lots of canned cold brew products to choose from.
This is a step in the right direction, regardless of the level of saturated fats. That is until you come back and report that AA will be placing 3 items in inventory per flight. Wait and see.
Gary, I know that this comment doesn’t fit here, but I’ve just gotta tell it. In an earlier post, I told about comparing AA and UA for Tampa to [some connecting point] to Manila. AA wanted about $700 more than UA, and UA was 100% business class (Tampa to LAX to Tokyo Narita to Manila arriving (on time !!) into Manila NAIA Terminal 3. AA was part business class and part economy (the NRT to MNL was economy – NO THANK YOU !!).
Our flight from TPA to LAX was going to be a tight connection, but due to storms we had to route more southerly. When we landed at LAX, I thought “I can make this connection if I hustle.” But no worries, I had a Global Polaris lady waiting just as I stepped off the plane. She said “your connection is tight, would you like a ride?” And of course I agreed. So we went out the steps by the plane door to a waiting Caddy. And they drove me over to my plane, and up those steps I walked. The gate agent checked my ticket and passport, and to my seat I went.
I’m not some “God’s Tier” passenger. But clearly United gave a crap. Guess who earned my business???
EdSparks58
When are the screens going back in?
I’m with @David P, it’s ‘a step in the right direction,’ regardless of saturated fats.
Let’s face it, @Un, it’s never gonna be Per Se, Le Bernardin, or Masa’s omakase on American Airlines…
@CHRIS — Thank you. Yes. Want to be a premium airline, then act like it. Bring back IFE. Every seat. It’s not hard.
Remember, AA used to sell a Salad with cold chicken on top, or a Deli sandwich – Turkey.
That food is plated. No way is it coming out to economy customers that way no matter what AA charges.